Is a new detached home on your holiday shopping list? If so, here’s a look at the supply and price situation you’ll be facing.

GTA builder sales centres these days are not unlike any other stores with in-demand items that sell out fast: the shelves are pretty bare. Heading into the holiday season, there were only 4,505 new detached home options available to consumers across the region.

If your preference is the west end of the GTA, Halton Region (Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville) had the fewest home choices and was the most expensive. There were only 349 detached homes available across the entire region, and in Oakville the average price of a new detached home was $1,411,648.

If you’re looking for the lowest prices in the GTA, head to the east end. In Durham Region (Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Uxbridge and Whitby) there were more than double the options compared with Halton Region (912) and the prices were almost one-third lower. The average detached home price in Ajax as of this writing was $531,458.

While Halton and Durham represent the extremities of the GTA in terms of location and prices, the bulk of the remaining detached home choices (71 per cent) can be found in York Region and Peel Region.

In York Region (which includes Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Georgina, King, Markham, Newmarket, Richmond Hill, Vaughan and Whitchurch-Stouffville) there were 1,731 new home options. In Peel Region (Brampton, Caledon, Mississauga) 1,457 detached homes were available for sale.

When it comes to pricing, Peel Region is the more favourable of the two regions. The average detached home price in Brampton was $718,956, compared to Vaughan at $1,075,970.

How does this work out in monthly costs? The average detached home in Vaughan, assuming you get a conventional mortgage, would require a down payment of approximately $279,000; at current interest rates — with a 25-year amortization — monthly mortgage payments would be in excess of $4,100.

What lies in store? With land prices for future development at record-high levels, exacerbated by hikes in development charges and continued delays in approvals and site servicing, the situation of limited supply and increasing prices for new detached homes appears likely to continue into 2014 and beyond.

George Carras is the president of RealNet Canada Inc. His column appears in New in Homes & Condos the last Saturday of every month. For more information, visit realnet.ca or follow on Twitter at @realnet_canada.